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Samsung’s PC Notebook Outdoes The Mac

No one can argue– successfully– that Apple Inc. does not have an outsized influence on technology. Look around. What do you see? Almost every smartphone that money can buy looks like an iPhone.

What about tablets? iPad rules, but nearly every tablet from Samsung to Amazon and other makers still foolish enough to compete have devices that look and work much like, well, iPad. What about PCs?

Fresh. New. Modern.

One can argue that the Mac line is getting long in the tooth; stale even. Yes, there is a new Mac mini and a new MacBook Air, but the iMac hasn’t changed design in years, the Mac Pro hasn’t had an update or a successor in years, and even the revamped MacBook Pro could use features we see in iPhone X models and iPad Pro models. Hello? Face ID? What about a touchscreen?

Yet, what do all modern personal computers look like today? The MacBook Air that co-founder Steve Jobs introduced more than a decade ago.

Guess who has a refreshed modern notebook PC that is as good as anything by Apple? Samsung.

What does that look like?

At the high end is Samsung’s new Notebook 9 Pro features an innovative thin and flat clamshell design with USB-C ports, an Intel Core i7 Inside, a 13-inch Retina display, 16GB RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. Thinner than a MacBook Air by a hair, and fatter than a MacBook air by another hair.

Samsung’s latest laptops have a refreshed, modern look that makes them way more appealing

What’s not to like? Samsung has re-invented the PC notebook.

The new Samsung PC models… come with fresh new designs that finally earns them a place next to the modern and beautiful machines from makers like Apple, Dell, Lenovo, or HP.

Wait a minute.

Where is the refreshed, modern look as good as rivals? After all, most PC notebooks from every manufacturer that is not Apple looks as if Apple gave them the designs (Apple did). Samsung finally copied Apple’s MacBook designs– as did HP, Dell, Lenovo, and every Chromebook on earth– and launched yet another PC notebook.

OK, to be fair, I happen to like the idea of a touchscreen notebook. No, not as a tablet or iPad replacement. That would be stupid, but there are times when simplicity rules, and what is more simplistic than a touchscreen?

Samsung has it and the promos and commercials of MacBook Air and iPad Pro competitors can be compelling.

Samsung innovates the traditional PC notebook at the other end of the scale with a $350 Samsung Notebook Flash. Guess what it looks like? The progeny of PC Jr’s marriage to a cheap floozie Chromebook.

Behold. Fresh and modern has a new look. It’s called retro.

Does that look familiar? Put some carpet on an old MacBook Air, update the hardware innards, and you have what amounts to fresh, new, appealing. Despite Windows 10, Flash has more in common with Chromebooks than a MacBook Air. It’s lighter but far less powerful, still has those ancient USB ports, a microSD card slot, HDMI and USB-C, a whopping 64GB of SSD storage, standard 1080P Retina-like LCD display, headphone and microphone jacks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (5.0), and a pedal operated Intel Celeron CPU (just kidding).

How does anything on that list come across as new, innovative, fresh, or modern? Apple gets criticized roundly for a mere update to the Mac line, while Samsung, not exactly know for having traditional PCs that rise above competitors, gets a headline that just makes no sense whatsoever.

Samsung’s latest laptops have a refreshed, modern look that makes them way more appealing

It’s as if Samsung decided to re-invent the MacBook Air and Chromebook nearly a decade after they were invented by someone else.

5G? Meh!

About Wil Gomez

I live in Brooklyn, New York and work in Manhattan; a Mac owner for almost 25 years, and an IT specialist on mixed platforms-- Mac, Windows, and Linux. Read more of my articles here. My fiancée is semi-famous Kate MacKenzie. Follow her on PixoBebo.